Uses of Plant Cloning
Advantages of plant cloning
- All the plants have the same genotype and hence phenotype
- The plants produced are free of disease
- The plants can be genetically modified to confer immunity to certain diseases
- Genetic modification enables growers to ensure that plants carry very distinct characteristics
- The process is rapid and can yield large numbers of new plants
- The small plants that are produced can be transported easily to other sites
- Plants that are difficult to grow from their seeds can be produced by plant cloning
- Plants can be grown in any country, in any season
- Rare and endangered species can be propagated to save them from extinction
- Whole plants can be created from genetically modified cells/tissues
- The use of cultivars prevents the risk of F1 hybrids that occur when plants are crossed and grown from seeds, so the products are more uniform
Disadvantages of plant cloning
- It is an expensive and labour-intensive process
- The process is susceptible to microbial contamination
- There is no genetic variation, so all of the offspring are susceptible to the same diseases or other environmental factors
- This risks large-scale loss of a country's / continent's crop of a particular plant, so a range of cultivars is recommended
- New plants have to be carefully screened for abnormalities that could lead to the new plants being infected
- There is a risk of an unexpected secondary metabolic chemical reaction that could cause stunted growth or even death in the new explants
